Career Path

04 - Engagement Plan (Onboarding, 6-Month Part-Time, Full-Time)

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tagseffen, applied-ai, presentation, onboarding, plan

6 min read

04 - Engagement Plan

Covers today’s onboarding conversation, what is realistic in the 6-month part-time (online) window, and the full-time scale-up that follows.

Part 1 - What to set with the boss today

Four outcomes for the conversation:

flowchart TB
    O["Today's onboarding"] --> S1["1. Scope & first quick win"]
    O --> S2["2. Role & the part-time -> full-time path"]
    O --> S3["3. Confirm the real numbers"]
    O --> S4["4. Budget + access sign-off"]

1. Scope & first quick win

  • Agree the sequence: Reporting Tier 1 ships first (needs only the ads MCP, returns value on day one), then Ideation, then Creative production.
  • Agree what 6-month success looks like: 3-4 workflows live and used by operators, dashboards for 1+ brands, the cost model validated with real numbers.
  • Agree the operating rule: ship at product-speed, hand off at culture-speed - so no workflow becomes a bottleneck around one person.

2. Role & the part-time -> full-time path

  • Role: in-house Applied AI Operator. KPI: lean scaling -> net profit (the cost model is the scoreboard).
  • 6 months part-time and online now, full-time next year. Agree the transition trigger (e.g. thesis proven with real numbers + 2 operators trained).
  • Set the expectation that raising organization maturity is how the role stays scalable rather than becoming the chokepoint.

3. Confirm the real numbers

Have the team fill the cost-model Questions tab (each with an owner):

  • Growth: brands today, new brands planned, ad accounts per brand, orders and ad spend per brand, US timing.
  • Output volume: ads / posts / DMs / videos / reports per brand per month.
  • Labor: loaded RM/mo per role + current headcount (marketers, designers, CS, analyst).
  • Tooling: confirmed plan/seat prices; FX rate.

4. Budget + access sign-off

The budget is small (see 03). The access is the real unlock - most of it has lead time, so request it today.

flowchart LR
    subgraph ADS["Ad + commerce access"]
      a1["Meta Business Manager admin + System User token"]
      a2["Google Ads MCC access"]
      a3["TikTok Business Center"]
      a4["WooCommerce API + Fighter.my + GA4/GTM"]
      a5["Shopee + TikTok Shop developer IDs (long lead)"]
    end
    subgraph ORG["Org infrastructure decisions"]
      o1["Move off personal Gmail -> managed Google Workspace"]
      o2["Stand up Notion + Claude Team seats + a VPS"]
      o3["Green-light WhatsApp -> Notion/Workspace migration"]
    end
    subgraph PEOPLE["People + compliance"]
      p1["Name 1-2 pilot operators (senior marketers)"]
      p2["Owner for the substantiated-claims list (Lipidri)"]
    end

Do first, because of lead time: Meta app review for DM automation (weeks), Shopee / TikTok Shop developer IDs, and the Google Workspace identity move. Also authorize the Notion / Google Workspace connectors in Claude settings - the enterprise-search payoff depends on it.

Part 2 - The 6-month part-time plan (online)

What is realistic while part-time and remote: build workflows, stand up infrastructure, and train via screen-share. Deep, in-person adoption and culture work waits for full-time. Sequence app-review and access requests in month 1 because of their lead time.

gantt
    title 6-month part-time plan (online)
    dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
    axisFormat %b
    section Foundation
    Vault + tokens + Claude Team   :m1, 2026-07-08, 30d
    Reporting Tier 1 (day-one win) :m1b, 2026-07-10, 20d
    Fill cost model w/ real numbers:m1c, 2026-07-10, 25d
    section First loops
    Ideation workflow              :m2, 2026-08-01, 35d
    Start WhatsApp -> Notion move   :m2b, 2026-08-05, 90d
    Train 2 senior marketers       :m2c, 2026-08-10, 90d
    section Factory
    Creative production            :m3, 2026-09-01, 45d
    Warehouse phase 1 (1 brand)    :m3b, 2026-09-01, 40d
    section Product surface
    DM/CS pilot (IG/FB, 1 brand)   :m4, 2026-09-15, 60d
    Social management              :m5, 2026-10-15, 40d
    section Prove it
    Consolidate + validate model   :m6, 2026-11-20, 30d

Month by month:

  • Month 1 - Foundation. Stand up the knowledge backbone (Git + OpenKnowledge vault, naming conventions). Provision accounts/tokens. Wire the ads MCP (read-only) + Claude Team. Ship Reporting Tier 1. Get the team filling the cost-model numbers. Draft the onboarding path. Win: someone pulls ad performance with zero manual export.
  • Month 2 - First loop. Ship the Ideation workflow (Foreplay + scraping + seeded angle library). Kick off the WhatsApp -> Notion/Workspace migration. Train 1-2 senior marketers online.
  • Month 3 - Factory begins. Ship Creative production (AI image gen + Creatomate render + performance ledger). Stand up Warehouse phase 1 for one brand -> first live dashboard.
  • Month 4 - Product surface. Launch the DM/CS pilot (ManyChat + Claude + our knowledge base) on IG/FB for one brand. (Meta app review started in month 1.) Draft the social workflow.
  • Month 5 - Scale + social. Ship Social management (two-gate approval in Notion + Zernio publishing). Reporting + creative running for 2-3 brands. Onboard a second operator.
  • Month 6 - Prove it. 3-4 workflows live and used by operators; dashboards for multiple brands; onboarding materials done; support channel open. Validate the cost model with real data and present results -> agree the full-time transition.

Part 3 - Full-time (next year): scale the factory

flowchart LR
    F["Full-time"] --> SC["Scale to ALL brands + US"]
    F --> WH["Warehouse fan-out -> Reporting Tier 2 (MER)"]
    F --> DM["Expand DM/CS (add WhatsApp for MY)"]
    F --> MK["Marketplace APIs: Shopee + TikTok Shop"]
    F --> HO["Hand off workflows to operators"]
    F --> EX["Exploratory: video generation, deeper CRM"]
    SC --> COMP["Compounding assets accrue:<br/>warehouse as MMM feature store,<br/>angle library, performance ledger"]

The job shifts from running workflows to supporting + building new leverage. Operators own the day-to-day; the compounding assets (warehouse history, angle library, performance ledger) make every next workflow cheaper and better.

How we help them scale - without increasing cost

The whole point, restated in numbers:

  • Adding a brand/market/account rides existing workflows - marginal cost a few hundred RM/mo vs tens of thousands in labor avoided.
  • 1,000 ads: RM 1,363 (AI) vs RM 50,000 (10 designers).
  • 10,000 DMs: RM 3,290 (AI) vs RM 40,000 (10 CS agents).
  • A+B+C stays sub-linear; labor-avoided grows linearly; the gap widens every month (see 03).

Scaling becomes adding brands to workflows, not headcount.

Risks & watch-items

  • Lead times: Meta app review, marketplace developer IDs, and access approvals can slow the first months - front-load them in month 1.
  • Adoption pace: part-time + remote caps how fast the team truly adopts; the WhatsApp -> structured-tooling move is the pacing item.
  • Compliance: the DM bot must never state an unapproved health claim - retrieval locked to the approved list, medical questions escalate to a human.
  • Data access: privacy/security sign-off for warehouse ingestion.

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